On Tuesday, many of residential areas across Da Nang’s Son Tra District experienced weak water pressure. Still worse, some areas on the streets of Khuc Hao, Ho Sy Tan, Nguyen Phan Vinh, and Le Tan Trung, in the district suffered from water outages.

Many of families in Son Tra District experiencing weak water pressure

Meanwhile, the Cau Do (Red Bridge) River has been suffering from severe salt-water contamination, which results in an increased risk of water shortages across the city.

On Tuesday, the salinity level of the river reached 3,525mg/l at 8.15am and 3,785mg/l 30 minutes later.

Therefore, the Da Nang Water Supply Company (DAWACO) has to operate the An Trach Pumping Station at full capacity to provide water for the Red Bridge and International Airport water supply plants.

DAWACO providing tap water for local residents through water storage tanks

However, the volume of water flowing from the upstream into the Yen River has been over 200,000m³ per day, whilst the city's tap water consumption capacity has reached between 290,000 m³ and 317,000m³ per day during the hot weather. This has resulted in some areas in the downstream area of the river, including Son Tra District, facing a lack of tap water.

To handle this matter of deep concern, DAWACO has asked owners of hydropower reservoirs to discharge water in accordance with their operation process to ensure the sufficient supplies of raw water to the city in the time ahead.

Hydropower reservoirs upstream of the Vu Gia-Thu Bon River have not discharged water in accordance with their operating procedures over recent days.

Currently, the An Trach Pumping Station is now operating at full capacity to provide water for the Red Bridge and International Airport water supply plants in a bid to meet the current daily demand for water of local residents. At the same time, DAWACO is sending water supply tankers to some areas in the downstream area of the river to provide tap water for local residents.

A person filling his plastic buckets with water from water supply tankers

Due to wet weather being lashing Da Nang, the city has seen a slight decrease in the daily water demand of local residents.

However, it is expected that it will take a long time to push the salinity out of the water at the Cau Do River because a tropical depression has recently strengthened into a typhoon, internationally known as Mun.

As a result, the salinity intrusion and water scarcity are going to continue in the coming days.